Moving On...

After nine months in Grand Rapids, we're moving on. Nothing against GR, mind you—we enjoyed our time there. God simply called us on to something else.

So, once again all our worldly possessions (save five suitcases) are packed away in a 5 x 10 storage unit. We left our Grand Rapids home behind a week ago today to spend the next three months on the road in our Honda Civic, visiting friends, family, and strangers to raise awareness and funds for The SOLD Project. Our journey will take us from Michigan to Nebraska to California all the way back to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania…and then on to Thailand at the beginning of July.

There, we’ll be living and working in a village in Chiang Rai province, home to The SOLD Project's prevention program and the children they work to protect from a life of sexual exploitation. After visiting SOLD’s operations in Thailand this past January, we’re eager to return and commit the next year (or more?) of our lives to serving these kids, learning their language, discovering their culture, and helping give them hope for a better future.

Learn more about our work at drivenbyfreedom.com.

Also, while we're speaking of moving on, I'm moving my blog to Tumblr (click here). I hope to see you all there!

Photos: Adventures in Europe

Heather and I love living here in Europe. Bratislava is a great little city that feels like home--we can't wait to show it off to Heather's parents when they visit us at the end of this month. Plus, living here and working with TWR has given us many opportunities to see some of the surrounding countries as well: Austria, Bulgaria, and Germany for starters (click the links to see some of my photos).

In fact, Heather just returned from Romania a few days ago and, today, we're leaving for a short trip to Paris...followed by a weekend visit to Rome! There will be more pictures to come, I'm sure. Until then, au revoir!

Farewell to Summer

Last Saturday, Heather and I took a day trip to Inner Harbor in Baltimore, MD. It'd probably been close to ten years since I'd been there and she'd never been at all, so we had fun exploring (once again, we confirmed that I'm directionally challenged, so I've officially ceded navigational privileges to Heather). We beat the crowds to the National Aquarium, walked up to Lexington Market for crab cakes at Faidley's, nearly interrupted an ongoing wedding ceremony (c'mon, people, ever heard of ushers?!) at the Baltimore Basilica, and poked around the shops surrounding the harbor. But mostly we just hung out — talking, people-watching, and enjoying the beautiful weather. It really was beautiful — warm and sunny with a light, cool breeze. It was the kind of day that gives me intense cravings for ice cream, apparently — I couldn't stop thinking about it all day ... but we never got any. Oh well. We did stop at Rita's and Starbucks, so I can't complain. All in all, it was the perfect end to a great summer.

Laughing at the Engrish Language

During the summer of 2004, I spent a month in Okinawa, Japan helping to teach English in local schools and communities. While there, I fell in love with sushi, fresh mango, dragon fruit, Aquarius, snorkeling ... and Engrish.

Engrish is misused English. It usually happens when Japanese designers and advertisers try to use English on their products to "look cool" and end up writing really funny (and often shockingly inappropriate) things on T-shirts, store fronts, and packaging. The best part is that Japanese consumers often buy and use such products without ever realizing that anything's amiss. For example, the pastor of a small church on Ie Jima often wore a T-shirt covered in nonsensical English phrases laced with profanity. (No one had the heart to tell him what it said — he'd received the shirt as a Father's Day present and it was one of his favorites.) I bought a couple shirts myself. One had the words "Dearest Monkey" and a picture of a smiling monkey with a speech bubble that said "A banana isn't given to it!" Too awesome not to have.

Here in the U.S., Engrish.com has been my go-to spot for butchered English hilarity. Just to give you a taste...


Classic. To see more and laugh harder, click here. Enjoy! Happy Monday.

A Guided Tour of Peru

Back in March, I accompanied my wife Heather on a travel writing & photography trip to Peru as part of her capstone project at Rutgers University. It was quite an experience, eye-opening in many ways. I wrote about the trip briefly in my post, "Don't Drink My Pisco".

Anyway, I finally put together a photo album of pictures from our trip. You can find the link to the right, under "Photo Albums". Enjoy!

Traveling Light

I'm not a huge fan of extra "stuff". If I won't use it (which means I definitely don't need it), I don't want it. Nor do I want to carry it with me on trips.

Introducing OneBag.com. Apparently, this site has been around for fourteen years, so I can't be too proud of my discovery (in fact, I'm probably one of the last people in the world to find it). Nevertheless, with practical advice on what to pack, what to pack it in, and how to pack it, it seems it's pretty much the authority on traveling light. Site author Doug Dyment argues you can pack everything you need for any trip in one carry-on sized bag. With airlines starting to change for checked luggage, trimming off the extra baggage is becoming an increasingly valuable skill.

Anyway, finding a site so obviously dedicated to efficiency and organization got my neat-freak self all excited. Enjoy!

Don't Drink My Pisco

I love to travel. When I graduated from college, I'd already been to Canada, Japan, and nearly every state in the continental U.S. Not bad for a homeschooled suburban kid from Pennsylvania. Still, that's only a fraction of the world, and I was eager to see more.

Naturally, I jumped at the invitation to accompany Heather on a travel writing and photography trip to Peru, South America this past March. The trip was part of her senior capstone at Rutgers University. It was also a bit of a second honeymoon for us.

From the complex simplicity of the ancient Inca's unshakable stone architecture to the ubiquitous iconography of the Spanish Catholics who slew them, we found ourselves surrounded by pieces of history, civilization, and culture we'd never experienced before. Travel has a curious way of opening one's eyes to the world, of putting things in perspective. It's often surprisingly surprising to discover a normal, everyday existence far different from your own.

We took just under a thousand pictures. We also bartered with the locals for a few small, carefully selected souvenirs and gifts. Mostly, we carried home the memories:

Cuzco, stray dogs, Spanish cathedrals, the Lord of the Earthquake, Ollantayambo, coca leaves, markets, bartering, Cusquena, sunburn, llamas, alpacas, guinea pigs, Aguas Calientes, Passion Week, hot springs, Machu Picchu, Waynapicchu, Lima, graffiti, ceviche, buffet meals, new friends, stimulating conversations...

...and pisco. Pisco is the national hard liqueur of Peru and the chief ingredient in their famous pisco sour (a potent drink indeed at 3,400 meters above sea level). Pisco, it turns out, is also a great name for a hamster. We bought this little guy the week we returned:
Best. Idea. Ever.